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Turbofan Mechanical watch with armour plated blades!

Peter says: This is “Turbofan” a remake of an earlier design called “Fan”.

The face of the watch is inspired by the blades of a fan. This inspiration makes for a technical looking dial that kind of looks like armour plating that constantly animates with the movement of the hands.

The time is told in a traditional analogue manner. The top mounted hand displays the hours. The disc in the center displays the minutes. As the hour hand rotates around the dial it collects the fan blades as it goes untill it gets to the twelve O’clock position. Then it spreads the blades out again in a constant cycle.

There is a second method of time display possible using this style of dial. The dials goes from positive to negative, ie the top hand/blade travels for the first twelve hours fanning the blades out, then the lowest hand takes over collecting the blades back it. This method looks more dynamic but becomes complicated at the twelve O’clock position where the positive meets the negative.

This design has a very dynamic animated appearance which should appeal to people who like mechanical analogue watches. The time telling method is conventional so should appeal to the traditionalist.

The mechanical animated appearance sets this watch from others. The style also works with different material combinations.

Im happy with the pun! Yeah black and green always has a nice techy feel, red and black always has a slight sinister feel. “Turbo volcano” damn you guessed the name of my next design! lol
Cheers for the comment, the vote and the luck (I need it) :D

Hey TF just a thought, if the fan blades moving with the time proved too difficult you could have them comnnected to a rotor like on a automatic or kinetic watch, they would spin around with the wearers movement. The top blade would still tell the hours like a conventional analogue and the disc for the minutes, the rest would move with the rotor. Just another way of achieving a similar look but with less complication. :D

I really like the mechanical, three-dimensional look of it, and how clean and consistent it is. Having said that, I can’t help but think that it might be possible to do more with the moving segments. At least I would try to, but then that might mess up the whole concept (judging by my past scores, my design choices tend to be a bit hit-and miss anyway =)…

Hey Anders, Cheers for the snazzy comment! Im intriged to know what you would have the blades do? please tell? I wouldnt pay much attention to the scores, I seem to get poor ratings irrespective, the comments are a better idicator of the general consensus. Cheers for the comment! :D

I don’t know exactly what I’d do with it, it’s more of a general feeling I s’pose so don’t take it too seriously, I don’t claim to be any shade of a design guru…=) I would say that I’d like to see more integration between the design theme and the time telling itself; using the lower blades for more than completing the look… Easily said, but the more I think of it the more difficult it becomes, as usual…=)

Yeah, I’m with you on the comments/ratings, but I suspect that the ‘truth’ might lie somewhere in between. After all, it’s easy to be harsh when clicking on a star, and a little difficult (at least for me) to be too critical when writing a comment… But then most people mostly comment on the stuff they like, so…=)

I see what you mean regarding the lower blades. I guess in an ideal world the lowest blade would show the seconds and the blades inbetween would fluxuate between the two, the it would be constant animation and would look really dynamic (woooo just imagining that now) but like you say that would add even more complication (TF like a challange right? lol)

Yeah your probably right about the ratings/comments, some comments are probably too fluffy and some ratings too harsh, ultimately its up to TF to interpret, the rest is purely morale boosting or destroying! lol

Hi Jamie,
Sensible suggestion, I did model the glass as it would be nessesary to avoid un-wanted friction/dirt etc. But my rendering package sometimes struggles with glass, the blades ended up with an unwanted texture so I left the glass out as it looked much better. Blummin techical issues (swears under breath) Thanks for the feedback, the yessesesses and the vote! :D

Hey Mr Taco, you are correct this design would require a glass lens. Like I mentioned in an earlier comment to Jamie, I did model the glass but my rendering package didn’t do it justice so I left it out for clearer graphics, cheers for the feedback and cool comment! :D

This watch…is…Amazing! The design of it is really sleek without any ridiculous pieces, and the concept is so ingenious! I would have to say that i would 100% go for the purple lit one you showed in the FB album. You get a 5* from me sir! Great job, and i hope to see your work fulfilled!

Thanks for saying Garette! Cheers for taking the fb album into account too! I’m glad you like it and I thank you sir for the kind words and vote, lets hope there are more that think the same so this one stands a chance! Thanks for the great comment Garette! :D

I like the overall look. The small minute disk would make it more a week-end watch, because you can only approximate the time, which is ok. ( unless markers are put under the glass, around the disk, on a “paper” )

Thats a nice idea Makko, rather than printing the markers they could be etched or moulded into the glass which would be subtle enough not to compremise the look but give the extra accuracy to make it more practical. Cheers for the feedback and the suggestion! ;)